History forcefully made? Last telegram sent to Rahul

The telegram service was started on a trial basis in 1850 and that too as an experiment between Calcutta and Diamond Harbor. It was four years later that it was opened to the public. And the telegram service came to cardinal use in dissemination of urgent information across the length and breadth of our country. A knock on the door in the dead of the night bore at times tragic news and at times rapturous news, but the news always came, sometimes not on time. The harbinger of the message would have to walk a few miles or cycle laboriously before he could reach his destination. A few days usually passed before messages reached their ultimate resting place. The iconic 163-year-old telegram service breathed its last on July 14th.

Now, when something as historic as the telegram service was being laid to rest, it subsequently also becomes a time for ornamenting a few names to the annals of Indian history. It has become an opportune time to rewrite history once and for all. There appears to be no confusion whatsoever of the telegram’s iconic history, its birth and its subsequent death. But, there most certainly seems to be confusion galore (or misinformation) on who sent out the last telegram and who received the last telegram service in India. There is one report published by the Times of India about how a young girl from Bangalore had sent out the last telegram to her Sister from a BSNL counter in Bangalore (picture below).

(Picture courtesy – Vijay on Twitter as @centreofright)

And then, there have been stories of how Rahul Gandhi snatched a piece of history by receiving the last telegram from some faithful chap called Ashwani Mishra. Now, I am not sure which story is true, but, what remains quite amusing is how the young scion’s name is being etched to a piece of history and how the media has been on an overdrive about it. It would be rather useful if concerned PR folks could let the world at large know exactly what Ashwani Mishra’s message bore? I wonder if it were a blank telegram hence the contents are not being disclosed or maybe it was a congratulatory message for Rahul’s achievements in the recent past, after all it would be quite easy to fit them all in a telegram, point by point. Maybe the message was for his ears alone? Only God knows. But, my point is, if Rahul Gandhi is being made to participate in a piece of telegraphic history, it would have been ideal if there was more transparency around this historic telegram that he received. So, will History text books in Indian schools now be revised with a chapter of India’s telegraphic services and of its last recipient? I think so. A service that was still being used by the common man was nailed in the coffin by a scion of India’s political dynasty instead, somebody who probably has never personally sent a telegram before, somebody who probably had little or no regard for the service. No common man received the last telegraphic message; instead the chosen one was a privileged man who has made his way into a history of 163 years, one way or the other.

It is not only young Rahul Gandhi who I assume had no use for the iconic telegraphic service, neither did people like yours truly make any use of it. A majority of this country’s population are a lot younger than the young Rahul Gandhi, they belong to a generation of the fast and the furious, where information travels at the speed of light, the telegram service was certainly not an option for them. These are telepathic times and not telegraphic times. The harbinger no longer knocks on our doors in the dead of the night, he no longer laboriously cycles his way to us, we no longer rip open a folded piece of paper to be enlightened of news good or bad. We are all harbingers in our own right; we are all equally equipped with the power of dissemination. There is a lot more awareness today than twenty years ago, only a foolish politician would think that the common man is living in the dark. I wish I had the privilege of sending my first and last telegram to our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India’s official harbinger. No, it would certainly not have been with any ulterior motive of historic significance. It would have simply read: “ Where are you?” My question fades into historical insignificance, like everything else. How could a Prime Minister who is busy cycling between 10 Janpath and 7, Race course Road have time for a silly question like this?

Author

Sharmila Ravinder is a qualified Accountant with a Finance background and has spent a good part of her life studying and working in India and Australia. She observes the dynamics of this versatile world and its effect on our day-to-day lives. She writes about the changing social, political and cultural climate in India and abroad. She immensely enjoys engaging in debates that encourage multiple narratives. A passionate animal lover, an avid traveller and a movie buff, she gleefully pens her thoughts in prose and sometimes in poetry too. A cat lover and always on the prowl, she has a keen eye for ordinary and extraordinary issues. She also blogs on www.sharmilasays.wordpress.com
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Sharmila Ravinder is a qualified Accountant with a Finance background and has spent a good part of her life studying and working in India and Australia. She. . .

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Author

Sharmila Ravinder is a qualified Accountant with a Finance background and has spent a good part of her life studying and working in India and Australia. She observes the dynamics of this versatile world and its effect on our day-to-day lives. She writes about the changing social, political and cultural climate in India and abroad. She immensely enjoys engaging in debates that encourage multiple narratives. A passionate animal lover, an avid traveller and a movie buff, she gleefully pens her thoughts in prose and sometimes in poetry too. A cat lover and always on the prowl, she has a keen eye for ordinary and extraordinary issues. She also blogs on www.sharmilasays.wordpress.com
Follow Sharmila
on FB:
www.facebook.com/pages/Sharmila-Says
Twitter:
@supershamz

Sharmila Ravinder is a qualified Accountant with a Finance background and has spent a good part of her life studying and working in India and Australia. She. . .